Accused of sexually assaulting dozens of women including minors, Canadian millionaire and former fashion mogul Peter Nygard agreed to be extradited to the United States, a Canadian court announced on Friday.
In prison since December 2020, the 80-year-old fashion mogul appeared on Friday morning in a Manitoba court in Winnipeg, central Canada.
Peter Nygard maintained “to be innocent”
Crown Prosecutor Scott Farlinger explained that Peter Nygard, who followed the short hearing by videoconference from prison, had accepted the extradition. “The process can now move forward so that he can be tried in the United States,” confirmed Brian Greenspan, one of his lawyers. “He will now have the opportunity to present his defense and to challenge the veracity of the evidence which has been held against him”, he added, recalling that Peter Nygard maintained “to be innocent”.
The businessman will not be immediately transferred to the United States since the Canadian Minister of Justice has yet to approve this extradition for it to become effective. Peter Nygard faces nine counts today, including racketeering and sex trafficking, according to the indictment, involving dozens of victims.
An arrest warrant
The acts with which he is charged allegedly took place between 1990 and 2020. During this period, the accused and his alleged accomplices, including employees of his group, allegedly “used force, fraud and coercion to bring about women and minors to have sexual relations ”with them, specifies the act.
In the morning, during the hearing, the Toronto police also announced that they had issued an arrest warrant against Peter Nygard on six charges of sexual assault and three of forcible confinement, according to the statement. Facts which would have taken place between 1987 and 2006.
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